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en-usCopyright 2015 AOL, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/12/06/indie-survival-sim-dyscourse-secures-funding-in-final-hours-on-k/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/12/06/indie-survival-sim-dyscourse-secures-funding-in-final-hours-on-k/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/12/06/indie-survival-sim-dyscourse-secures-funding-in-final-hours-on-k/#commentsDyscourse, the desert-island survival sim from Snuggle Truck developer Owlchemy Labs, has met its goal in the final few hours of its Kickstarter campaign, securing funding for development on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Owlchemy faced an uphill battle in the final week of its campaign, but crested its $40,000 funding goal with 36 hours to spare. Funding picked up steam following a barrage of updates from Owlchemy, during which the studio produced a mini-documentary and announced a bonus Dyscourse scenario that pits real-world indies against one another in a no-holds-barred struggle for survival.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>crowdfundingdyscourseindiekickstartermacowlchemy-labspcFri, 06 Dec 2013 15:30:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2013/11/22/the-first-dyscourse-gameplay-video-shows-how-to-not-kill-a-boar/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/11/22/the-first-dyscourse-gameplay-video-shows-how-to-not-kill-a-boar/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/11/22/the-first-dyscourse-gameplay-video-shows-how-to-not-kill-a-boar/#commentsDyscourse is a quirky survival game that developer Owlchemy Labs promises is heavy on narrative and player choice - and finally we can see what all of that means. The first gameplay video of Dyscourse follows Rita and a few crabby tourists as they attempt to survive in the wasteland where their plane crashed, narrated by Owlchemy founder Alex Schwartz.

Dyscourse is looking for $40,000 on Kickstarter and has 13 days to go, with $19,000 in the bank. When Owlchemy launched the campaign, Schwartz told us that player choice in Dyscoursereally, really mattered. Really.

Odds are good that some of these indies won't survive long enough to be rescued. As in Dyscourse's main story mode, players must make decisions and form alliances among fellow survivors in order to hunt, eat, and address emergent story details that unfold throughout.

Dyscourse has 18 days left in its ongoing Kickstarter campaign, and has earned over $13,000 toward its funding goal of $40,000.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>cameodyscourseindiekickstarterlinuxmacowlchemy-labspcMon, 18 Nov 2013 12:30:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2013/11/06/snuggle-truck-devs-dyscourse-promises-your-choices-truly-matt/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/11/06/snuggle-truck-devs-dyscourse-promises-your-choices-truly-matt/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/11/06/snuggle-truck-devs-dyscourse-promises-your-choices-truly-matt/#commentsDyscourse is Owlchemy Labs' most ambitious project to date - it's a survival title for PC, Mac and Linux that tackles groupthink, the futility of earning a degree in art, and branching narrative paths depending on each player's unique choices. Really this time, Owlchemy founder Alex Schwartz tells me.

"Throughout the history of games, the claim has been made multiple times that player choice significantly affects gameplay," he says. I offer Telltale's The Walking Dead as one game that some players think promised too much control over the story. Schwartz says he loves that series but sees how voice acting and a big dev team pushed it to be a more linear story.

Dyscourse doesn't feature voice acting, instead relying on text, and the game takes place in a "narrative playground," the island where main character Rita crash-lands with a ragtag group of tourists. Schwartz says Owlchemy's approach means each player will have a unique experience, tell a different story, and probably kill their companions in different ways. By accident, of course.

"We're using some really interesting in-house tech to manage the writing process, but it's definitely a challenge," he says. "What it boils down to is attempting to write a large, multi-tiered narrative that can be approached from many different angles and a player simply only sees a small fraction when they play through a single time. Using variables to detect whether a player experienced or did not yet experience a certain dramatic moment - such as, 'Did the player find that hidden key yet?' or, 'Has the player uncovered the hidden backstory of one of the survivors?' - we can dynamically adjust the experience for each playthrough."